PRACTICE AREAS

The Environmental Practice of Eckert Seamans has a long history in the constantly changing environmental area. The practice is as diverse and broad-based as the subject matter itself, impacting as it does upon an array of business, industrial and individual clients. Representative of the firm's clients are chemical manufacturers, heavy industry, coal mining operators, light manufacturing, waste disposal companies, financial institutions, closely held businesses and real estate developers. 

The firm's environmental lawyers assist clients with compliance, enforcement, government rulemaking, responding to information requests, strategic planning and other matters that are subject to statutes such as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the state and local counterparts of these and other environmental regulatory programs in numerous jurisdictions across the country.  Issues include defense, permitting and counseling regarding air, water, industrial and hazardous waste, toxic chemical substances, disposal sites and wetlands and other real estate development issues including infiltration. 

The firm has litigated a variety of environmental enforcement actions and regulatory and permit proceedings before federal and state courts and administrative tribunals. The firm has successfully represented a number of clients in multimedia enforcement actions.  The firm also has handled a variety of private-party litigation matters such as contribution or cost recovery claims under CERCLA, the defense of citizens' suits and environmental nuisance claims. Firm lawyers successfully negotiated the first self-disclosure under U.S. EPA’s draft Self-Policing and Self-Disclosure Policy and subsequently represented clients engaging in self-disclosure under various federal and state environmental disclosure laws, policies or guidance.  In addition, the firm's attorneys have defended criminal enforcement proceedings brought under federal and state environmental programs against business entities and their officers and directors. 

The firm's environmental practice also includes evaluating the environmental risks and advising clients on the risk management considerations of lending, real estate, acquisition and other business transactions, business and estate planning, and facility management. The environmental attorneys work closely with attorneys in the firm's Corporate and Business Department and are actively involved in counseling clients and conducting due diligence on environmental issues for public offerings, annual and quarterly reports and disclosures and industrial, commercial and real estate transactions, negotiation and drafting of the environmental sections of commercial contracts, and providing services in connection with the preparation of regulatory compliance and waste management plans. 

Eckert Seamans has the capacity to provide the full range of its environmental services from all of its office locations.